Tuesday, August 7, 2012

30 week appointment and Alice update

Today I had my 30 week appointment, an ultrasound to check the babies growth, and the dreaded gestational diabetes test. Everything went incredibly well. I passed the GD test with flying colors. I'm so glad because in a few weeks I have to switch from Lovenox injections (once a day) to heparin injections (twice a day) and the thought of torturing my poor belly with insulin injections on top of that was making me very sad. Baby weighs just shy of 3-1/2 pounds now. She is in the 55th %-tile for weight. Heartbeat was great, movement was great. My fluid level is perfect and the placenta is functioning fine. PHEW! Two slight bumps in the appt: my BP was up the first time they took it. The nurse had me lie on my left side for 5-10 minutes and then took it again. It went down enough to satisfy everyone. I'm still having to watch it, though. They also checked my iron today and it was low. No iron pills at this time, just an advisement to increase my consumption of red meat. Red meat and taking it easy - I think I can handle that. : )

Overall I couldn't ask for a better appointment. In fact, this is the week I was supposed to start bi-weekly appointments, but the OB was so impressed by how well the baby and I are doing that I have a whole two weeks off! My next appointment is the 20th. I have Monday / Thursday appointments scheduled from then until a week before my due date (Oct 18). Mondays are non-stress tests and Thursdays are ultrasounds. I'm not sure if I'll see a doctor both days or only on ultrasound days. One of the nurses commented that things were about to get hard in this last stretch since I would have so many appointments. I just laughed. This is gravy. I am so thrilled to be at this point and to be doing so well. Her comment made me think about everything I've done and gone through so far with this pregnancy:
*185 injections
* 3 stints of bedrest
* 1 middle of the night trip to labor and delivery
* 26 doctor's appointments
* 24 blood draws
* 6 ultrasounds
* hyperemesis to the point of dehydration and significant weight loss

No, I'm not just starting the marathon now. This is my victory lap.

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Alice is doing better. She is still having pain on and off, mostly off these days, thankfully. There were no significant findings from any of the tests that the GI ran. We will consult with her pediatrician at the end of the month to talk about what to do next. Meanwhile we are keeping her diet the same (for now) and have started giving her a b vitamin complex every day. Tim and I both have genetic mutations that inhibit our bodies from processing b vitamins. (We found this out when we were undergoing testing for multiple miscarriages.) I have a double mutation; I'm not sure if Tim's is double or single. Either way, Alice has at least one mutation from me. We had talked about starting her on a b vitamin, but I couldn't find a kids stand-alone formula. A few days ago I was looking up information on MTHFR (our mutation) and saw that two of the symptoms of a vit. b deficiency are mouth sores and stomach pain. Hmmmm. So, we'll try this and see if it helps.